1. Field of Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to mobile phones, and more specifically to enhancing user friendliness in accessing web pages on communication paths with low bandwidth.
2. Related Art
A mobile phone refers to a device which communicates via base stations of a cellular network, using technologies such as GSM, CDMA, TDMA, etc., as is well known in the relevant arts. Using the interface provided by a base station, a mobile station can typically establish calls (voice or data) with various recipients of interest, as is well known in the relevant arts.
Mobile phones are often provided with the requisite capabilities (e.g., a web browser) to access web pages from various sources. As is well known, a web page generally contains content according to a pre-specified format (e.g., HTML) such that the information can be rendered on a display unit of a digital processing system.
One challenge with accessing web pages is that there are often situations in which the bandwidth on a communication path (particularly from the mobile phone to the gateway noted above) is low. For example, the data connections provided based on General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) in the context of GSM network generally have bandwidths of the order of 8 kbps-20 Kbps, which is quite low compared to the high speed connections possible using other mediums/technologies such as digital subscriber line (DSL) technology (which provides bandwidths in the range of 56 Kbps to more than 2 Mbps).
The limited bandwidth makes the time to complete downloads rather long, making it inconvenient for the users, often testing their patience, while waiting for the downloads to complete. It is generally desirable that mobile phones be user friendly when web pages are accessed using low bandwidth communication paths.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.